AHL: Plenty of grit and some goals, finally, lift Bulldogs over Stars, 5-1

Tied for scoring lead

Hamilton Spectator File Photo

The Hamilton Bullogs’ top scorers are rookie Sven Andrighetto, pictured, and captain Martin St. Pierre with just 11 points. The Dogs found the net on Tuesday night, however, blitzing the Texas Stars, 5-1, at Copps Coliseum.

As we were steamrolling through a busy November and a solid beginning to the season began wobbling a bit, the Hamilton Bulldogs had once again taken their traditional position near the bottom of the American Hockey League's scoring ledger.

Going into Tuesday night's sparsely attended game against the Texas Stars — the folks at Webster's Dictionary who are sticklers for precise definitions might take issue if we called it a crowd — there were only four teams in the AHL scoring less often than the Dogs.

Then Tuesday night happens.

Out of the blue, the Dogs channel the early-'80s Edmonton Oilers and score four goals before the game is much more than halfway old and look like a potent offensive force. Then get another in the third and cruise to a convincing 5-1 win.

How out of character was this? Hamilton had scored five goals in regulation time exactly … uh ... zero times this season. Only once previously had they potted as many as four. That, of course, was in front of the smallest audience of the season. Meaning the team's two biggest, most-exciting goal-scoring explosions were enjoyed by little more than family and friends.

For marketing purposes, that's not great. For hockey purposes, though, the team's going to take nights like this whenever it can.

Going into the evening, the Dogs were averaging just 2.44 goals per game. The glass-half-full folks will point out that's better than last year's league-low 2.09. And essentially the same as two years ago when the number was 2.43.

Of course, the glass-half-empty folks will point out the Bulldogs didn't make the playoffs in either of those two seasons.

The problem is a gap between potential and production.

This is a team that has some offensive talent based on historical precedent but it isn't translating at this level yet. For the third straight year, finding even one player who's having a breakout season on the scoresheet is tough.

The Dogs' top scorers are rookie Sven Andrighetto and captain Martin St. Pierre with just 11 points. That's good for just 65th in the league's scoring race. Last year, the team's top point collector was Gabriel Dumont, who landed a lowly 162nd on the list. The year before Brian Willsie had the honours, but finished way down at 80th.

Not coincidentally, the last time they made the post-season tournament, the team's top scorer was Nigel Dawes, who finished fifth in the league in scoring. The year before was David Desharnais, who also finished fifth.

Thing is, if you don't have a lot of guys who are hot, you still have to find ways to score if you want to compete. The template for how to find goals was demonstrated beautifully in this game. It's not about aesthetics. It's about the grind.

Three of the goals against Texas weren't going to win any awards for artistic merit. They just came from hard work around the net. Yet here's the amazing thing. They counted for just as much as the pretty ones.

Throw in some big hits, five fights — this is not a lobbying effort for more fighting, just an indication the team was willing to play gritty hockey — and some good goaltending and the Dogs enjoy their most-complete game of the season.

Unless a few guys find some magic, this is the way they're going to have to play to be successful. It starts with effort, ends with effort and has effort in between.

It's tough to do night after night. But it's clearly the way that works for this group.